My EJ1 Project (Self documentation, tech + appearance) Feedback appreciated

[Heath]

In for the update.

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[PRcivicHB]

To swap a B series you need a hoist?? Because when I swapped my SOHC for another, all i did was jack the car as low as i can without the tires... Then dropped the old motor... Afterwards, I raised it high enough to put the new SOHC under and then lowered it again onto the new motor.... Alakazam, it was in...

Maybe its different for a B series...

Anywho, updates!!! Pictures of the car with freshly painted trim!!!

[troppop]

subscribed, Great start!

[Essenar83]

Okay, update 1-

I got the car lifted, on jacks and started on the engine removal.

Note: For any of you reading this, hoping to find out how to get work like this done as a first timer with no help, I'll give you this one useful tip. PACE YOURSELF. I still think, at this point, a person with low mechanical experience and the dedication alone can get this done. I'm almost past the hard part, but the biggest mistake I made was making huge goals based on other people's experience. I was making plans like, "I'll have the stock motor out on the first day, and then tomorrow I'll start putting the B18 together, and on Friday I'll drop it in, it'll be running by Saturday!". Obviously I was quite wrong.
Without air tools, you'll run across a lot of "rusted shut" bolts and without the proper extensive tools, you'll run across small obstacles. The beginning part of removing a stock motor, apparantly, is the most difficult part of a swap in regards to what tools it requires. I had to make 2 trips to SEARS to buy tools.

This is the motor as it sits now. Stock airbox removed, some of the harness plugs removed, exhaust manifold heat shield removed slightly (still need 02 sensor)

After my reality check, I realized it was important for me to slow my goals down a bit. I would spread out goals I think are the most time consumptive, two at a time per day.



Getting the axles out was difficult too. I required additional information to get them out, but I was successful after a lot of times being frustrated. As you can see, it gets very messy under the car.


This is the 02 sensor I'm having some trouble with, but tomorrow I'll either go by Autozone for an 02 sensor socket, or I'll just remove the front bumper/radiator for more space.


Here's my distributor on the D16. You can see the plugs on the top and bottom. One of them is connected to the exhaust 02 sensor. I'm having trouble unplugging these, any advice?


With this pic, you can see, in the very back, the mount I was having trouble finding. Under the car it was very hard to spot, partly because the undercarriage of the car is covered with some kind of black oily goop. I'm guessing it's just a mixture of leaked motor oil, brake dust, rust and condensation from the car not being heavily worked on by the previous owner. This would also explain why the damn damper fork bolts were so hard to get off. The caliper bolts were also basically rusted shut. Liquid Wrench helped with that. After I clean the calipers and rotors and install new pads before putting the brakes back on, I'll decide with my own discretion if the brakes are even worth keeping at that point. I see Integra full brake conversions going for 250 bucks sometimes and it'd be a nice addition.



Ahh yes, the motor junk.
The most important part of both of those pics is the damn cup from Burger King. Gotta have my phat refreshments y0!
The stock B18C header is actually junk, because one of the pipes is cracked. CheapBay header is going in until next month when I get paid then I'll buy a DC Ceramic.
You can see the stock B18C mounts, axles and stuff in this pic, and also my rotors I set aside. I have to clean them later. I felt them and there were no grooves so the rotors are fine. It's the calipers I'm worried about.

My plans as of now are to finish removing the wire harness from the D16Z6 and vaccuum hoses. After that I'll start working on the mounts, which are ironically the easiest part to remove, the part that holds the motor on. You'd think motor mounts would be exceptionally difficult to take off given the reason for them.

My anticipated obstacles:
The wire harness itself is proving to be my worthy adversary.
The two bolts holding the shift linkage under the shifter.

Other than that, I'm pretty sure everything else will be groovy.

Update 1 done, thanks for reading everyone!

Mad props for first timer and doing it yourself. good job. for those connectors, sometimes the release push down breaks on them, use a small screw driver or a pick and lift up on the opposite side of the connector
the o2 sensor can be a win/lose situation. sometimes do to the prolonged heat and cold cycles, the o2 will weld itself to the threads in the manifold/exhaust. i haven't seen it happen on hondas, mostly v8's. use some of that liquid wrench and break it loose.

[sohc_coupe24]

props to you man...i would never have the guts to start at such a high level...gl on the project

[96dxpower]

nice

[Essenar83]

Thanks for the props guys.

It gets hard sometimes, not having a second hand to help, but honestly I prefer it that way.

I want to learn this on my own and getting someone to do difficult parts instead of me is only going to keep me from learning it fully.

My friend did his first B swap alone with no air tools and now he's almost a master mechanic. He said swapping a B is the easist swap of all cars, rivaled only in difficulty compared to a D> D swap, and even then, he said swapping a B vtec into an EX/VX/SI is simpler than swapping a D vtec into a D non vtec chassis.

I guess now that I have the mounts loose, rear mount removed, it's just a matter of hoses and harness plugs and I'm good to go. Well that and the clutch slave cylinder.

[JdmLub]

Originally Posted by Essenar83

and even then, he said swapping a B vtec into an EX/VX/SI is simpler than swapping a D vtec into a D non vtec chassis.

so true lol..

[BlackHXCoupe]

Originally Posted by jdm_bones

Good deals indeed smart shopper, would like to see the end result, GL on your project man..

Indeed.

[h22apwrd95]

If you take the harness connectors off of their metal mounts, they will come apart easier. Especially the distributor one. It has a little tab that won't slide past the metal part if it is still on the metal tab.

Mike

[UberJDMef8]

Good luck with the build...keep us posted and dont forget pics

[Leo C]

you might run into some fitment issues w/ an ebay header. i'd recommend using the stock exahust manifold( how badly cracked is it?)

[Essenar83]

Checked the reviews and they said the fitment is good for stock exhaust. I won't get Apexi WS2 until after I have brand name intake/header anyway.

I always envisioned saving the exhaust for last.

Either way: Minor update- Pics will be up tomorrow.

Long story short. I came across a friend at Kay Jewelers at the mall. He rides a CRX with a B18C 98 spec JDM. I told him about my project and some of the frustrations I was having. He gave me his number and told me to call him after he got off work.

It was rather suspicious, me having a guy's phone number in my pocket written on a little piece of paper in red ink. I didn't feel too well about it lol.

That aside, he came by my house, shocked that I wasn't BS'ing about what I bought, and immediately took me to his house to get his tools.

2 hours of work, and now the motor is completely stripped from the car, but we're having trouble getting it out of the engine bay.

I'm happy we got it that far though. He said if I let him help me, I'll be GSR powered by Tuesday night.

EDIT: My total numbers so far
Car - 1700
Engine+Tranny+Extra parts - 1900
Shift Linkage Stabilizer - 65
Water Neck - 30
Distributor - 150
Tools - 250 (Hoist + various sockets/extras/liquid wrench)

I'm looking at roughly 4100 even to get the car complete.
4200 or so with new gaskets and fluids.

I'll be selling the hoist, most of the tools and my D16Z6 when the swap is complete.

If I get even 600 for all of it, I could probably say I'll have a fully running GSR swapped EJ1 for roughly 3600.

[Sleepy_Red_hatch]

ill be dooing this myself aswell, but i came up with the idea to just unplug the harness from the shock towers fold it in on its self, take the motor out of the bay, then once its out, install the harness to the new motor, so then, you can know where everything goes (plug it in while you unplug it) then all you need to do is plug it into the shocktower once the motor is in

[JDM_EjONE]

nice find and keep everything up

[JDM-EJ1]

This is awesome man. Good luck with the rest of it.

[Sa.L.aS]

Keep us up dated....Good luck

[Essenar83]

Two updates today- One right now and one when I start putting the B18C together.

I got that stupid motor out! It was being painful because I got everything unplugged finally, got all the mounts loose and removed all the harness plugs (thanks to a friend).

We started trying to lift the engine, but I don't have a leveler so I couldn't keep the transmission lower. After about an hour messing with it, we gave up for the night, because the exhaust manifold was locking up in the bay.

Today early in the day I gave it a headstart. Putting my brain together I decided to combine my floor jack and my hoist and a pipe. I put the jack under the exhaust manifold and lifted it by itself. After about 15 minutes messing with it, I cleared it enough to lift it.



There she is, D16Z6 on the ground, minus a few extras of course. DON'T PM ME, THE MOTOR IS ALREADY SOLD.

Here's the engine bay pictures.



I had to remove the radiator, but suprisingly I didn't have to remove the compressor fan.



Looking at it now, I realize how accomplished I feel, getting this far almost on my own as a first timer. It was definitely not as easy as I'd anticipated, but it also wasn't as hard as my mind made me think it was.



This side provided the most problems honestly, because it was hard to tell what lines went through the firewall and which rerouted to the engine. I also had a lot of trouble figuring out how to unplug the harness plugs.



This is the part that gave the most trouble. The stupid catalytic convertor. It was basically blocking the exhaust manifold from coming up with the motor. I damaged that line, I don't know what it is to be honest, but it's not damaged beyond use, it's just cosmetic.

Well! That's it for updates. I'd say I'm about 35% done with the swap. I divide the swap into three parts:

Pulling stock motor out.
Dropping new motor in.
Troubleshooting, correcting the lines/wiring, torquing the bolts.

Here are some sweet pictures from when I barely got started!



WOOT! Harness put together. I was pretty stoked about it, because it took me like 2 hours to get it right lol. I was going to rent a hoist, but honestly, it's 15 bucks a day to rent a hoist, and being a first timer, it'd take me at least 10 days to finish the swap if I worked nonstop. I figured I'd be paying full price for a swap and never get my money back.



That's when I just pulled the GSR out of my Corolla. It was a lot easier to get out than it was to put in, let's put it that way.



PUSH THAT SHIT!! My friend Luis looks like he's crying in this picture lol. It was hard to keep the hoist from turning when I pushed it.

Thanks for reading guys. I'm hoping to have the GSR dropped in and be working on getting it running properly by Tuesday night!

[sohc_coupe24]

keeep up the good work..hope to see her running soon

[Sa.L.aS]

[JDM-EJ1]

Nice work getting that motor out! Good luck getting the new one in.

[rukawa1one]

I too am getting a GSR dropped into my car right now. Looking at yuor thread makes me wish i did it myself, but I dont have the time to spend to do it. Good work, really

[Essenar83]

Originally Posted by rukawa1one

I too am getting a GSR dropped into my car right now. Looking at yuor thread makes me wish i did it myself, but I dont have the time to spend to do it. Good work, really

It's not as hard as it seems. Well it depends on how you look at it. It's not that hard but some parts of it can be extremely time consumptive.

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and instead of working on it, I go work out or watch movies or something. You imagine what it'd be like to have the motor in your car and drive it, but it's hard to sometimes get the motivation to actually work on it.

Even a hobby can sometimes be like work unless you take your time with it and do it right.

[808_si]

rad post, and yeah props for taking on this project. You'll be so stoked when it's all done because you did it yourself! good luck man